Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was an English colony in North America that existed from 1636 to 1776, with Providence serving as its capital. It was founded by Roger Williams in 1636 on lands given to him by Narragansett sachem Canonicus, and Williams intended for it to be a haven of religious freedom. He named the capital of this colony "Providence", a city on the mainland. In 1637, another group of Massachusetts settlers purchased land from the Native Americans on Aquidneck Island, which they named "Rhode Island" after the Mediterranean island of Rhodes. Thus, the colony was named for both the island and for the Providence settlement. In 1663, King Charles II of England granted the colony a charter promoting its promises of religious freedom, and it abolished witchcraft trials, debt imprisonment, most capital punishment, and chattel slavery of both blacks and whites. Around the turn of the 18th century, slavery returned to the colony, but the bedrock of the economy continued to be agriculture. In 1776, Rhode Island joined the newly independent United States during the American Revolutionary War.